Join your land and conservation easement acquisition and stewardship peers across the eastern half of the U.S. to expand your knowledge and skills and find a place for support — sharing your successes and seeking solutions to your challenges.

This is a peer learning experience especially for land trust professionals working on acquisition, stewardship and management of land and conservation easements. Beginning in May 2025 and running for 18 months, this opportunity will offer multiple ways to connect and learn with others, from training to network building to roundtable discussions focusing on various aspects of acquisition and stewardship.

Learn more about the program components, eligibility and fees below.

Apply now to join your colleagues!

Eligibility

All levels of knowledge and experience are welcome. This is a peer-to-peer group and acknowledges that everyone has something to learn and something to teach. To be a part you need a spirit of adventure and commitment to active participation and meet these criteria:

  • Your organization is a land trust member of the Land Trust Alliance.

  • You are a paid staff member or unpaid board member or volunteer who works on conservation acquisition and/or stewardship (including management of fee lands and conservation easements.)

  • You have the support of your supervisor and executive director (or board chair if from an all-volunteer land trust).

  • You work in one or more of these eligible states (comprising the Land Trust Alliance’s Eastern Division): AL, AR, CT, DE, FL, GA, IA, IL, IN, KY, LA, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, MO, MS, NC, NH, NJ, NY, OH, PA, RI, SC, TN, VA, VT, WI, WV or Washington D.C., Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and the Gulf Coast of Texas.

"Your obligation is that of active participation. You should not act as knowledge-absorbing sponges, but as whetstones on which we can all sharpen our wits."
Edsger W. Dijkstra, systems scientist and computer science pioneer

Program elements

There are three elements to this program — click each below to learn more.

Advanced practitioner group

Staff and volunteers at all levels of experience are welcome in the acquisition and stewardship peer group. If you are an experienced practitioner (8 or more years of experience), you are also invited to participate in an optional advanced practitioner cohort.

  • Advanced practitioners commit to:
    • Attending at least 80 percent of the scheduled sessions.

    • Leading or participating in a 15 to 20-minute presentation during at least two monthly learning sessions.

  • What to expect of us
    • The Alliance will host quarterly meetings for the cohort to connect as peers and discuss relevant topics.

Cost

There is no registration fee to participate in the program.

We estimate the value of the program to be $2,400 per participant for this series of learning opportunities over an 18-month period. We are grateful to generous Alliance supporters for making it possible to offer this without a registration fee.

Time frame

The peer group will run from May 2025 through November 2026. It will be conducted every three weeks on Tuesdays from 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Eastern/10-11:30 a.m. Central, except for instances where the date had to be shifted. Please reserve this time and see the outlined schedule below.

May 6, 2025
Program and peer group introductions
May 6, 2025
Program and peer group introductions
May 27, 2025
Acquisition
June 17, 2025
Stewardship
July 8, 2025
Acquisition
July 29, 2025
Stewardship
Aug. 19, 2025
Acquisition
Sept. 3-6, 2025
National Land Conservation Conference: Rally Peer Meeting
Sept. 9, 2025
Skip
Sept. 30, 2025
Stewardship
Oct. 21, 2025
Acquisition
Nov. 18, 2025
Stewardship
Dec. 2, 2025
Acquisition
Dec. 23, 2025
Skip
Jan. 13, 2026
Stewardship
Feb. 3, 2026
Acquisition
Feb. 24, 2026
Stewardship
March 17, 2026
Acquisition
April 14, 2026
Stewardship
April 28, 2026
Acquisition
May 19, 2026
Stewardship
June 9, 2026
Acquisition
June 30, 2026
Stewardship
July 21, 2026
Acquisition
Aug. 11, 2026
Stewardship
Sept. 1, 2026
Acquisition
Sept. 16-19, 2026
National Land Conservation Conference: Rally Peer Meeting
Sept. 22, 2026
Skip
Oct. 13, 2026
Stewardship
Nov. 3, 2026
Acquisition

Apply

Eligible people are requested to fill out an online application, estimated to take five to ten minutes. Land Trust Alliance staff will review your responses and use them to help shape our time together, incorporating your learning priorities and leveraging your knowledge to help other peers learn.

The first meeting takes place on May 6, 2025. Please respond by April 22, 2025.